Shanghai E-Prix win a happy reset for Cassidy, Jaguar

Nick Cassidy described his victory in the second Shanghai E-Prix race as “a massive relief” as he ended a winless run in the series stretching back to the final weekend of last season.

This season Jaguar TCS Racing has been off the pace, with Cassidy languishing in 13th before the Shanghai weekend. Cassidy challenged for the championship throughout last season, winning twice in Diriyah and Berlin, but ahead of this weekend he had only taken one podium in the second race of the Monaco E-Prix weekend – another wet race like Sunday’s contest.

Amid rumors that he will depart the team at the end of the season, Cassidy paid tribute to Jaguar’s resilience, having managed to eventually eke out a result.

“I've had an amazing time since joining Jaguar TCS Racing, they’ve supported me from day one," he said. "I think it was almost unnatural [with] the season that we had last year, and now this year has been tough. We've not quite had the car. Today though, I had the best car on the grid and it's just nice to know that as a group of people and a team, when we give ourselves the tools that we can execute.

“I think it gives us a lot of confidence. Everyone in my team rides the waves with me. It's not just me that feels down, it's them too. But they haven't given up. They're still searching for answers, still searching for performance and just about today and this weekend was proof of that.”

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Cassidy executed an alternate strategy to second-place finisher Pascal Wehrlein, taking a shorter first Attack Mode, negating that by having better track position, having started from pole then having enough of a gap thanks to the race starting behind the safety car. He then used a longer second Attack Mode to maintain his position out front and cross the line over seven seconds ahead of the reigning champion.

“The conditions at the start were really tough,” Cassidy said. “I could see our strategy was a little bit different to these two guys next to me. They were probably a bit quicker than me on lap one and two. I just really – on the green flag and on that first Attack [Mode boost] – did the best job I could.

“I knew I was going to be on two minutes, and there was a chance they could be on four, but I wanted to keep the lead if possible. So as soon as I was able to keep the lead, as Pascal come out of his Attack, I was a bit more relaxed, and then the car came to me.

“I was able to spend a lot of a lot of laps fine tuning those four-wheel drive settings so they could be improved for later in the race. And that was better. On the four-wheel drive later in the race, I didn't have to push, I didn't have to take risks. I could just manage gap, which in these conditions, if you can afford to do that, is always a lot more of a benefit, because the margin for error is incredibly small in these conditions, and it took the pressure off, for sure.”

With a breakthrough victory, as with the podium in Monaco, Cassidy believes it gives the team impetus to keep making steps forward and return to their familiar place nearer the front of the field.

“I think we made some good steps this weekend,” he said. “There's certainly a lot of a lot of goodness there. We're maybe a little bit behind, but we're coming, and to be able to fight for race wins in the second half of this championship, in the last five races, is certainly our goal.

“Days like today or this weekend gives us good hope, and we can keep improving and challenge strongly the last five races.”